Roy Cooper’s handling of immigration and public safety shows he listens to anti-ICE activists and dark money groups, and that stance has real consequences for communities across North Carolina.
Roy Cooper has repeatedly rejected legislative efforts to tighten public safety and immigration enforcement, and those choices have shaped public perception. He earned the nickname ‘killer Cooper’ because critics say his policies put residents at risk by prioritizing ideology over law enforcement. In a politically balanced state, Cooper’s positions on immigration have become a defining contrast with voters who want stricter enforcement.
Cooper’s critics say he answers to well-funded anti-ICE groups rather than voters or law enforcement. One organization frequently named in this debate is Siembra NC, which has drawn scrutiny for its funding and its positions. Reports claim Siembra NC received $600,000 from the George Soros network, and that money has underwritten its activism and influence.
Siembra NC has publicly questioned the origins and role of police in America, linking modern law enforcement to historical injustices, and it has promoted workshops aimed at monitoring immigration agents. Those workshops teach tactics to observe and record Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the field. Opponents argue these trainings make agents’ work harder and encourage open friction between federal officers and local activists.
For many conservatives, the solution is straightforward: people who shouldn’t be here must be deported, starting with those who commit crimes. That view hardens when local officials release or fail to detain individuals with serious records. The case of Carlos Fernandez Rosales has been cited as an example where an ICE detainer did not lead to removal and the public paid a price.
That broader concern intensified after a deadly hit-and-run in 2025 that resulted in national attention and federal action. The ICE account of that arrest paints a bleak picture of how local policies intersected with violent outcomes. The official release reads as follows:
On January 14, ICE announced the arrest of Julio Cesar Xocop-Vicente, a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala who killed Amber Paris, a 15-year-old girl and American citizen after running a stop sign while speeding and striking her with his vehicle.
On November 24, 2025, Xocop-Vicente was speeding through a residential neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina when he ran a stop sign and struck the 15-year-old with his vehicle. He then immediately fled the scene on foot.
Amber Paris was hospitalized and placed in a medically induced coma. She passed away on December 18, 2025.
[…]
While Xocop-Vicente was arrested by local law enforcement the next day and charged with driving without a license, reckless driving, and felony hit-and-run, the soft-on-crime and pro-illegal criminal illegal alien policies of Charlotte, North Carolina mayor Vi Lyles and other politicians allowed him walk free on bond before ICE could file an immigration detainer. Worse, local authorities then dismissed his driving without a license charge on December 2, 2025, while Paris was still fighting for her life.
This is also the second time that Mayor Lyles’ Charlotte has allowed this criminal illegal alien to walk free and avoid deportation after an arrest. He was convicted in 2023 for driving under the influence and driving without a license and had a criminal record that includes a previous arrest for assault on a female.
The release and the sequence of events it describes have been used by critics to argue that local policies and political choices allowed a dangerous individual back on the street. That argument points at elected officials in Charlotte and at state leaders who resist robust coordination with federal immigration authorities. Families who lost loved ones in incidents like this demand answers about why detainers and charges did not produce timelier action.
Many voters now see a link between activist groups pushing to limit ICE and the decisions of politicians who listen to them. For those focused on law and order, the concern is less theoretical and more immediate, tied to real crimes and real victims. When governors or mayors prioritize activist demands over cooperation with federal enforcement, critics say the result is predictable and preventable harm.
Siembra NC’s influence and the flow of outside money into state politics have become a focal point for debates about accountability. Opponents contend that Cooper’s responsiveness to these groups shows misplaced priorities and a willingness to let ideology dictate public safety policy. That perception has sharpened scrutiny of Cooper as he moves onto a larger political stage.
The clash over immigration enforcement in North Carolina has become a referendum on public safety, federal-state cooperation, and the role of outside funding in local policy. Voters and officials will keep testing those boundaries as high-profile cases and funding revelations continue to surface. For now, the controversy centers on who holds the governor’s ear and what that means for communities across the state.
